Articles

It goes without saying that horror, strictly speaking, is not among cinema’s most expansive genres. Most times, it’s as conservative and formulaic as porn, and its requisite elements are as familiar as a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

The mosquito fern that covered the eastside Delta Ponds’ surfaces with dramatic purple the past two winters had nearly disappeared by late spring of this year. The duckweed family overtook the mosquito fern and turned the ponds green, much to the gustatory delight of the waterfowl. Suddenly, in July, the mosquito fern has made a resurgence and may regain dominance; observations to come. Even the green is different. Instead of common duckweed, the green is dominated by the tiny water meal (Wolffia) of the flowering duckweed family.

For most, a morning ritual consists of brushing one’s teeth, eating breakfast, maybe a cup of coffee or two and, of course, getting dressed before heading out the door. But imagine not being able to put on clothing that expresses who you really are.

Grouping couches together, chilling racks of beer, lighting coals for the grill. These aren’t preparations for the neighborhood potluck. They’re what some people have done to get comfortable for playing hours of Pokémon Go on a downtown street corner.

While some stores are seeing an increase in foot traffic, that hasn’t translated into a similar increase in profitable business.

“Both the Wayward Lamb and the Pride festival are working together to expand events around Pride,” says Vincent Mays, an organizer for the Eugene/Springfield Pride Festival that celebrates its 25th anniversary this year at Alton Baker Park.

• Measure Your Online Marketing: Reports and Analytics 6 pm Thursday, Aug. 18, with Carol Infranca, “award-winning print and broadcast journalist, business and government marketing and public relations specialist and an authorized local expert for Constant Contact.” The workshop is FREE and takes place at the downtown Eugene Public Library at 10th and Olive. Call 541-682-5450 or visit eugene-or.gov/library for more information.

• It’s Oregon summer. That means juicy blackberries, SLUG queen coronations and outdoor parties. The Eugene Celebration and its hokey but awesome parade have disappeared, the Festival of Eugene lasted only two years before falling apart in a storm of racism allegations, but the Whiteaker Block Party thrives. Can Eugene bring its downtown festival back? Last weekend marked the 10-year success of the Whit Block Party with its free entry, and that might have some lessons for party planners. Come party with the SLUG queens 6 pm, Friday, Aug.

• Teatro Mundo presents Secretly Famous: The works of Andrew Rodman for one last weekend 6 pm, Aug. 11 to 13 at Café Mundo in Newport. The show is free but donations can be made to support Rodman who survived pancreatic cancer in 2011 but is battling the disease again.

When the United States went to war in 1941, music was in the arsenal. After Japan’s catastrophic sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the country needed cheering up and troops needed cheering on. The nation’s pop culture institutions were enlisted, going on tours and producing “V-discs” (records) and shortwave broadcasts for deployed soldiers and music about coming home and accentuating the positive for Americans.

If the Lane County Board of Commissioners votes in late September to give themselves the power to yank duly approved initiatives from the vote of the people because they decide the initiatives are not “of county concern,” there is at least one bright spot: the subsequent people’s initiative to reverse that unconstitutional ordinance will most assuredly be “of county concern.”

To Commissioners Bozievich, Stewart, Farr and Leiken: The initiative process belongs to the people!

Living in Oregon’s Willamette Valley means that Manifest Destiny, also known as the Pacific Ocean, is never more than an hour away. From this distance, or even up close, it’s easy to romanticize such a beautiful place. Gazing upon the Pacific, anything feels possible.

Visit the Oregon Coast, however, and sometimes you find sandblasted people and communities, stooped low against literal and metaphorical headwinds — economically and emotionally depressed.

DEAR READERS: I’m on vacation for the next three weeks—but you won’t be reading old columns while I’m away. You’ll be getting a new column every week, all of them written by Dan Savage, none of them written by me.

On a bright weekday morning, 12 students fill out a downtown Eugene classroom as an excited buzz of conversation fills the space, and University of Oregon psychology professor Holly Arrow leads the class in a discussion about facts, opinion and confusion between the two.

Standing on sun-scorched grass in Scobert Gardens Park, Emmons is hardly able to endure the blighted landscape, littered with empty beer cans, cigarette packs and pizza boxes. Shoeless daysleepers stretch out flat in swaying blots of shade. Summer breezes tumbleweed a plastic grocery bag across the dusty lawn and leave it at his feet.